I’ve been saying for three episodes now that I’ve been waiting with baited breath for all the accumulated story and characters to come together and really give the show the oomph it needed to go from good to great. Everything up to now has been perfectly Spider-Man, but I’ve been watching Spider-Man properties for decades now, so it’s going to take a little more than just getting the basics right while reinventing the inclusive nature of 60s comics to put it over the top. However, with its fourth episode, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man has finally gotten to a place where the creation of a sprawling Parker-verse and all of it’s multiple story webs is starting to finally pay off and the result has been well worth the wait.
From going into the details of the Parker/Osborn union, to picking story points from various parts from Spidey’s long and varied history, it’s time for the Wall Crawler’s latest animated incarnation to really get into the swing of things.
For those wondering how an imposing, billionaire control freak and an amicable teen with spider powers could manage to co-exist, it becomes pretty clear that Norman Osborn assumes he can mold Peter Parker into an image of his own devising to forge him into the best hero he can be. Why does Norman want to do this, because the Avengers have recently split thanks to an in-house argument over the Sokovia Accords that saw them come to blows in an airport in Berlin and the CEO of Oscorp wants to help shape the heroes who will rise up in the wake of this revelation. However, the various new identities that Osborn has created don’t sit partially well with the teen who has to wear them.
Meanwhile, the poor, beleaguered Lonnie Lincoln is trying to find his place after joining the 110th Steet Gang in order to liberate his younger brother from their influence. However, gang boss Big Ben isn’t particularly pleased about the new member’s attitude and sends him out on an innocuously simple errand to pick up some fast food without telling him that the restaurant is located deep in the territory of the Scorpions, a rival gang. After barely making it back alive, Lincoln isn’t happy about being played, but now that he’s on the Scorpions radar, he now needs the gang to watch his back.
Back with Peter and after numerous failed attempts at trying out new identities, Norman concedes that Parker will be a much more effective hero if he’s allowed to be himself and continue to be Spider-Man. This is proven when a quartet of Russian bank robbers make a getaway from their latest heist and cause chaos in their wake – however, while Spidey rescues numerous civilians from the carnage and the police apprehend three out of four of the perpetrators, seismic ramifications are at hand.
While triumphantly swing back to Norman’s office, Peter stumbles into some family time when Harry Osborn sees him with his mask off – but while this could problematic, the identity of the man supplying wannabe criminals with tech is finally revealed. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Otto Octavius.
From the moment Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man started, this was the exact moment I was waiting for – the moment when all of the various aspects finally create a nexus point that makes all of the frenzied world building finally come into perfect focus. What we have here is essentially a Spidey fan’s dream that finally cements the huge, ever changing, Spider-Man community that lives and breathes like a living thing while our hero does what he does best. While we’ve already got Peter’s home, school and Oscorp life all laid out, his Spidey world is gradually expanding to match it and the first indication of that is that we finally see how exactly Parker and Osborn will coexist. After using the Avengers split from Captain America: Civil War as a spring board, Norman’s control freak nature comes through immediately as he tries to rebrand Pete’s superhero shtick to match his own sensibilities. While Norman is still a character operating on the side of the angels, its still a very telling character trait that this man can’t leave well enough alone even when an upgrade is all Parker really needs. Thus the episode digs into the rather colourful past of Spider-Man’s alternative costumes, such as that of Prodigy, The Hornet and Shroud (what, no Ricochet?) before it settles on the black and white “Future Foundation” look which is what the episode – and Peter – ultimately settle on. It’s a wonderfully creative gimmick for a show so utterly dedicated to digging almost as deep into classic spider-lore than the Into The Spider-Verse animated movies, as it’s already co-opted and updated Steve Ditko’s art style and a modernised version of the classic theme song from the 1967 show.
However, when you also consider that the episode also throws in pre-supervillain versions of the Rhino, the Cameleon and the Unicorn, a mention of rival gang leader Mac Gargan (the Scorpion) and even the show’s first appearance of Doctor Octopus (voiced by Hugh Dancy no less) as the man who has been outfitting various criminals with advanced tech to finance. It’s a huge amount of stuff to process – let’s not even forget all the Lonnie Lincoln stuff too – and yet the episode manages to digest it all with style in a way that doesn’t interfere with the flow of the episode one bit.
In fact, I can’t think of another form or Spider-Man related media that references so much of the character’s history from such a diverse spread. We get MCU references to Civil War, the alternate costumes originally come from a comic arc from the 90s, the Future Foundation suit comes with a brief stint with the Fantastic Four in the 2010s, the Peter/Osborn team up originates with a recent arc and even the green and yellow look of Octavius look ripped clean out of a tattered Marvel issue from the 60s.
It’s the result I’ve been hoping for since the beginning of the show and to see it all finally come together makes the hard work of the previous episodes completely worth it. But just because Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man has its spider-sense locked firmly on the past, that doesn’t mean it isn’t treading new ground. Bringing in Harry Osborn into Peter’s trust circle so early is certainly new and the fact that the show has created a fully functional, complex criminal fraternity in just four episodes that took the comics decades to build.
After putting in the work to build some strong foundations, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man finally comes into its own with style and a whole raft of alternate costumes and villains to spare. But the real wonders behind this episode lay in its ability to hurl four diffrent costumes at you, introducing five new villains and nail you with twists in a way that all fold in organically to make some superior storytelling.
The old theme song maintains that action is Spider-Man’s reward – this episode is ours.
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